Aide: Obama will focus on jobs in State of the Union

Jan. 25, 2014
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President Obama during the 2013 State of the Union. / Charles Dharapak, AP

by David Jackson, USA TODAY

by David Jackson, USA TODAY

President Obama will spend Tuesday night's State of the Union speech talking about efforts to expand the economy and create jobs, a top aide said Saturday.

"The president will lay out a set of real, concrete, practical proposals to grow the economy, strengthen the middle class and empower all who hope to join it," senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer said in an e-mail to Obama supporters.

Pfeiffer also announced that Obama will take a two-day national tour after Tuesday night's speech, seeking to sell his program with stops in Prince George's County, Md., Pittsburgh, Milwaukee and Nashville.

In the coming days, Obama will also "outline new efforts to help the long-term unemployed," Pfeiffer wrote.

The president delivers his annual speech to a joint session of Congress at 9 p.m. ET Tuesday.

Although Pfeiffer provided no details of Obama's proposals, the president and his aides have said he will call for an increase in the minimum wage and final passage of an immigration bill. Obama also supports more government investments in programs devoted to manufacturing, energy and education.

Income inequality â?? a frequent topic of recent Obama speeches -- also figures to be a major theme of this year's State of the Union Address.

Pfeiffer's e-mail did not discuss what Obama might say about foreign policy.

In the weekly Republican radio address on Saturday, Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said too many Americans remain unemployed -- or have stopped looking for work altogether -- because of Obama's own policies.

Citing the health care plan and energy policies in particular, Blunt said, "This administration's agenda to create more government, more spending, more taxes and more debt has created an inequality crisis of opportunity in our country."

In his e-mail preview of State of the Union themes, Pfeiffer said Obama will make clear he is prepared to take executive action if congressional Republicans won't act. He said the president will enlist business people, workers, state and local lawmakers, young people and veterans to help push his initiatives.

"When American jobs and livelihoods depend on getting something done, he will not wait for Congress," Pfeiffer wrote.

Saying that the speech's themes will be "opportunity, action and optimism," Pfeiffer wrote: "With some action on all our parts, we can help more job seekers find work, and more working Americans find the economic security they deserve."